1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an electrical connector, and particularly to a high density electrical connector having a plurality of circuit boards for high speed signal transmission.
2. Description of Related Art
With the development of communication and computer technology, high-density electrical connectors with conductive elements in a matrix arrangement are desired to construct a large number of signal transmitting paths between two electronic devices. The high-density electrical connectors are widely used in internal connecting systems of severs, routers and the other like devices requiring high-speed data processing and communication. Such high-density electrical connectors are disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 6,152,747, 6,267,604, 6,171,115, 5,980,321, and 6,299,484. These high-density connectors generally comprise two mating connector halves, i.e., a plug connector half connecting with a backplane and a receptacle connector half connecting with a daughter card and for mating with the plug connector half, thereby establishing an electrical circuitry between the daughter card and the backplane.
Especially, connectors disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 6,267,604 and 6,171,115, each comprise a front housing portion having a front wall with a plurality of parallel apertures extending therethrough, an organizer attached to the front housing portion and a plurality of printed circuit boards retained between the front housing portion and the organizer. Both the front housing portion and the organizer are made of plastic material or the other like materials. The organizer has a plurality of slots that are spaced-apart corresponding to the apertures, and a plurality of openings communicating with the slots in a bottom wall thereof. The circuit boards each form signal and grounding traces on opposite sides thereof and have a mating edge which is inserted through the aperture of the front housing portion for mating with a complementary connector. Mounting edges of the circuit boards are inserted through the slots of the organizer and have soldering tails for electrically connecting with a circuit substrate.
However, since the front housing portion and the organizer are made of plastic material and have no lead-in mechanism provided thereon, insertion of the circuit boards therein needs a large push force, and cannot be smoothly performed. This results in that during insertion, the signal and grounding traces of the circuit boards may be easily scrapped or damaged by the relatively rigid front housing portion and the organizer, thereby adversely affecting electrical connection of the circuit boards with the complementary connector.
Hence, an improved high-density electrical connector is required to overcome the disadvantages of the prior art device.
Accordingly, a first object of the present invention is to provide a high density electrical connector having a plurality of circuit boards to transmit high speed signals between two electronic devices.
A second object of the present invention is to provide a high density electrical connector having a plurality of individual daughter circuit boards which can be smoothly inserted into a housing of the connector without being scrapped or damaged.
To fulfill the above objects, an electrical connector, to be mounted on a mother board, in accordance with the present invention comprises an insulative housing defining a plurality of channels, a plurality of circuit boards partially received in the channels, and a spacer assembled with the circuit boards. The spacer includes a plurality of wafers defining a plurality of tunnels between every two adjacent wafers for partially receiving corresponding circuit boards. Each wafer has a body portion, a plurality of signal terminals molded with the body portion and conductively contacting with corresponding signal traces formed on a corresponding circuit board, and a grounding bus covering the body portion. The grounding bus forms a plurality of grounding tabs conductively contacting with grounding traces formed on the circuit board. Each grounding bus forms smooth slope portions at opposite sides of an upper end thereof for facilitating insertion of the corresponding circuit board and a neighboring circuit board into corresponding tunnels, respectively.
Other objects, advantages and novel features of the invention will become more apparent from the following detailed description when taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings.